Wherever there is a world of sentient beings, there is a world of buddha ancestors. Thoroughly examine the meaning of this.
In this way, water is the true dragon’s palace. It is not flowing downward. To regard water as only flowing is to slander water with the word flowing. This would be the same as insisting that water does not flow.
Water is just the true thusness of water. Water is water’s complete characteristics; it is not flowing. When you investigate the flowing and not-flowing of a handful of water, thorough experience of all things is immediately actualized.
There are mountains hidden in treasures. There are mountains hidden in swamps. There are mountains hidden in the sky. There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness. This is how we study.
An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains, waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.
In this way, investigate mountains thoroughly. When you investigate mountains thoroughly, this becomes the endeavor within the mountains.
Such mountains and waters of themselves become wise persons and sages.
Presented to the assembly at Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery at the hour of the Rat [midnight], the eighteenth day, the tenth month, the first year of the Ninji Era [1240].
16
BUDDHA ANCESTORS
ACTUALIZING BUDDHA ANCESTORS means to uphold and see them in veneration. It is not limited to buddhas of the past, present, and future, but it is going beyond buddhas who are going beyond themselves. It is taking up those who have maintained the face and eye of buddha ancestors, formally bowing and encountering them. They have manifested the power of the buddha ancestors, dwelt in it, and actualized it in the body.
The buddha ancestors are:
Vipashin (Boundless Discourse) Buddha, Honored One
Shikhin (Fire) Buddha, Honored One
Vishvabhu (Universal Compassion) Buddha, Honored One
Krakucchanda (Gold Wizard) Buddha, Honored One
Kanakamuni (Golden Sage) Buddha, Honored One
Kashyapa (Drinking Light) Buddha, Honored One
Shakyamuni (Patient Silence) Buddha, Honored One
Mahakashyapa, Honored One
Ananda, Honored One
Shanavasin, Honored One
Upagupta, Honored One
Dhritaka, Honored One
Micchaka, Honored One
Vasumitra, Honored One
Buddhanandi, Honored One
Buddhamitra, Honored One
Parshva, Honored One
Punyayashas, Honored One
Ashvaghosha, Honored One
Kapimala, Honored One
Nagarjuna, Honored One
Kanadeva, Honored One
Rahulata, Honored One
Sanghanandi, Honored One
Gayashata, Honored One
Kumarata, Honored One
Jayata, Honored One
Vasubandhu, Honored One
Manorhita, Honored One
Haklenayashas, Honored One
Simhabhikshu, Honored One
Basiasita, Honored One
Punyamitra, Honored One
Prajnatara, Honored One
Bodhidharma, Honored One
Huike, Honored One
Sengcan, Honored One
Daoxin, Honored One
Hongren, Honored One
Huineng, Honored One
Xingsi, Honored One
Xiqian, Honored One
Weiyan, Honored One
Tansheng, Honored One
Liangjie, Honored One
Daoying, Honored One
Daopi, Honored One
Guanzhi, Honored One
Yuanguan, Honored One
Jingxuan, Honored One
Yiqing, Honored One
Daokai, Honored One
Zichun, Honored One
Qingliao, Honored One
Zhongque, Honored One
Zhijian, Honored One
Rujing, Honored One.
I saw Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha Tiantong, at the time of summer practice period in the first year of the Baoqing Era [1227] of Great Song, and with a formal bow completed receiving these buddha ancestors.
This can only occur between a buddha and a buddha.
Written and presented at Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, Uji County, Yamashiro Province, Japan, on the third day, the first month, the second year of the Ninji Era [1241].
17
DOCUMENT OF HERITAGE
A BUDDHA IS TRANSMITTED dharma only from a buddha, an ancestor only from an ancestor, through merging realization in direct transmission. In this way, it is the unsurpassable enlightenment. It is impossible to give the seal of realization without being a buddha, and it is impossible to become a buddha without receiving the seal of realization from a buddha. Who else, other than a buddha, can certify this realization as the most venerable, the most unsurpassable?
When you have the seal of realization from a buddha, you have realization without a teacher, realization without self. This being so, it is said, “A buddha receives realization from a buddha; an ancestor merges realization with an ancestor.” The meaning of this teaching cannot be understood by those who are not buddhas. How then can it be measured by bodhisattvas of the ten stages or even those in the stage of enlightenment equal to buddhas’?
Furthermore, how can it be discerned by masters of sutras or treatises? Even if they explain it, they still do not understand it.
Since a buddha receives dharma from a buddha, the buddha way is thoroughly experienced by a buddha and a buddha; there is no moment of the way without a buddha and a buddha. For example, rocks inherit from rocks, jewels inherit from jewels. When a chrysanthemum inherits from a chrysanthemum and a pine gives the seal of realization to a pine, the preceding chrysanthemum is one with the following chrysanthemum and the preceding pine is one with the following pine. Those who do not understand this, even when they hear the words “authentic transmission from buddha to buddha,” have no idea what it means; they do not know heritage from buddha to buddha in merged realization of ancestor and ancestor. What a pity! They appear to be a buddha family but they are not buddha heirs, nor are they heir-buddhas.
Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor of Caoxi, once gave a discourse to the assembly: “There are forty ancestors from the Seven Original Buddhas to myself, and there are forty ancestors from myself to the Seven Original Buddhas.”
This is clearly the meaning of the authentic heritage of buddha ancestors. The Seven Original Buddhas include those who appeared in the last eon and those who appeared in the present eon. Nevertheless, the continuation of face-to-face transmission of the forty ancestors is the buddha way and the buddha heritage.
Thus, proceeding from Huineng to the Seven Original Buddhas is the buddha heritage of forty ancestors. And going beyond from the Seven Original Buddhas to Huineng is the buddha heritage of forty buddhas.
The buddha way, the ancestor way, is like this. Without merging realization and without buddha ancestors, there is no buddha wisdom and there is no thorough ancestral experience. Without buddha wisdom, there is no accepting buddha; without thorough experience, there is no merging of realization between ancestors.
The forty ancestors here represent only recent buddhas. Furthermore, the mutual heritage between buddhas and buddhas is deep and vast, neither backing up nor turning away, neither cut off nor stopped.
This means that although Shakyamuni Buddha had realized the way before the Seven Original Buddhas, he finally received dharma from Kashyapa Buddha. Again, although he realized the way on the eighth day of the twelfth month in the thirtieth year since his birth, it is realization of the way before the Seven Original Buddhas. It is realization of the way simultaneously with all buddhas shoulder to shoulder, realization of the way before all buddhas, realization of the way after all buddhas.
Furthermore, there is an understanding that Kashyapa Buddha,
in turn, received dharma from Shakyamuni Buddha. If you do not clarify this, you do not understand the buddha way. If you do not clarify the buddha way, you are not an heir of the buddha. The buddha’s heir means the buddha’s child.
Shakyamuni Buddha once caused Ananda to ask, “Whose disciples were all buddhas of the past?”
Shakyamuni Buddha answered, “All buddhas of the past are disciples of myself, Shakyamuni Buddha.”
The presence of all buddhas is like this. To see all buddhas, to succeed in all buddhas, to fulfill the way, is the buddha way of all buddhas. In this buddha way, the document of heritage is always given at the time of transmitting dharma. Those without dharma heritage are people outside the way who believe in spontaneous enlightenment. If the buddha way had not clearly established dharma heritage, how could it have come down to the present?
For this reason, when a buddha becomes a buddha, a document of heritage is given to a buddha’s heir buddha, and this document of heritage is given by a buddha’s heir buddha.
The meaning of the document of heritage is this: you understand the sun, the moon, and stars, and inherit dharma; you attain skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, and inherit dharma; you inherit a robe or staff, a pine branch or whisk, an udumbara blossom or a brocade robe; you receive straw sandals or an arched bamboo staff.
At the time of dharma heritage, the document is handwritten with the blood of the finger or the tongue. Or, it is handwritten with oil or milk. Every one of these is a document of heritage.
Those who entrust and those who receive this heritage are both the buddha’s heirs. Indeed, whenever buddha ancestors are actualized, dharma heritage is actualized. At the time of actualization, innumerable buddha ancestors arrive without expectation and receive dharma without seeking. Those who inherit dharma are all buddha ancestors.
In China, since the time Bodhidharma, the Twenty-eighth Ancestor, came from India, the principle that there is dharma heritage in the buddha way has been authentically understood. Before that time, it had never been spoken of. This is something that had never been known in India by teachers of scriptures or treatises. This is something that has never been reached by bodhisattvas or even by teachers of dharani who study the meaning of the Tripitaka. What a pity! Although they have received a human body as a vessel of the way, they are uselessly entangled by the net of scriptures; they do not understand the method of breaking through, and cannot realize the moment of leaping out. This being so, you must study the way in detail and wholeheartedly determine to thoroughly experience it.
When I was in China, I had the opportunity to bow to some documents of heritage. There were various kinds.
One of those who showed me documents of heritage was Visiting Abbot Weiyi at Mount Tiantong, a former abbot of the Guangfu Monastery. He was a man from Yue, like Rujing, my late master. So Rujing would say, “Ask Abbot Weiyi about the customs of my region.”
One day Weiyi said, “Old writings worth seeing are treasures of humankind. How many of them have you seen?”
I said, “I have seen a few.”
Then he said, “I have a scroll of old writing. I will show it to you at your convenience.” He brought it to me. It was a document of heritage of the Fayan lineage that he had obtained from the articles left behind by an old master. So it was not what Weiyi himself had received.
The document said, “The First Ancestor, Mahakashyapa, was awakened by Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha was awakened by Kashyapa Buddha.”
Upon seeing this, I was firmly convinced that there is dharma heritage between an authentic heir and an authentic heir. This was a teaching I had never seen before. At that moment the buddha ancestors had invisibly responded to my wish and helped me, a descendant of theirs. I had never been moved so much.
When elder Zongyue was filling the position of head monk at Mount Tiantong, he showed me a document of heritage of the Yunmen lineage. The name of the teacher giving the document of heritage and the names of some Indian and all Chinese ancestors were written side by side, and below that was the name of the person receiving the document. The name of this new ancestor was directly connected to those of the buddha ancestors. Therefore, all the names of the more than forty ancestors from the Tathagata are joined together with the name of the new heir. It was as though each of them had given heritage to the heir. Mahakashyapa, Ananda, and others were lined up just as in other lineages.
I asked Zongyue, the head monk, “Reverend, there is some difference among the Five Schools in the arrangement of names on the documents of heritage. Why is that so? If it came directly from India, why is there such a difference?”
Zongyue said, “Even if there is a vast difference, just understand that buddhas of Mount Yunmen are like this. For what reason is Venerable Shakyamuni revered? He is revered for his awakening of the way. For what reason is great master Yunmen revered? He is revered for his awakening of the way.”
Upon hearing these words, I had some understanding.
Those who are heads of the large monasteries in Jiangsu and Zhenjiang provinces now are mostly heirs of the Linji, Yunmen, and Dongshan lineages.
But among students, particularly among those who call themselves descendants of Linji, some intend wrongdoing. Usually those studying in the community of a master request a scroll of the master’s portrait and a scroll of his dharma words in order to prepare to meet the standard requirement of dharma heritage. But these fellows ask the attendants of masters for dharma words and portraits, and collect and hide many of them. When they are old they bribe public officials to get a temple and hold the abbot’s seat without having received dharma from the masters whose dharma words and portraits they obtained. Instead, they receive dharma from the famous masters of the time or from the masters who have given dharma heritage to retainers of the king. They covet fame without regard to attaining dharma.
What a pity that there are such crooked habits at this wicked time of decayed teaching! Not even one of those fellows has ever dreamed of the way of buddha ancestors.
Now, the masters’ dharma words or portraits are also given to lecturers of scripture schools as well as lay men and women. They are even given to workers in the monasteries or to merchants. This is evident by the records of various masters.
In many cases, monks who are not qualified eagerly desire proof of dharma heritage and ask for a scroll of calligraphy. Although their teachers are distressed by this, they reluctantly take up the brush. In such cases the teacher does not follow the traditional format, but writes only that the person has studied with him.
The recent way is that when students gain accomplishment under a master, they receive dharma from that master as their dharma teacher. Some monks sitting on a long platform, who have not received a seal from a master but have only received guidance in the abbot’s room or listened to the formal lectures, constantly refer to what was given by their master after they become abbots of temples. On the other hand, many students only accept those with whom they have broken open the great matter as their dharma teachers.
Also, there was a priest named Chuan, a descendant of Priest Qingyuan, Zen Master Fuyan of Longmen. This Chuan, a librarian, also had a document of heritage. At the beginning of the Jiading Era [1208–1224], when librarian Chuan was sick, senior monk Ryuzen, a Japanese, took good care of him. Because Ryuzen worked hard, librarian Chuan, grateful for help during his illness, took out his document of heritage and let Ryuzen see it, saying, “This is a thing not commonly shown, but I will let you pay homage to it.”
About eight years after that, in the autumn of the sixteenth year of the Jiading Era [1223], when I was first staying at Mount Tiantong, Ryuzen cordially requested that librarian Chuan show this document of heritage to me. In this document of heritage, the names of the forty-five ancestors from the Seven Original Buddhas through Linji were lined up, and the names and monograms of masters after Linji were written inside a drawn circle. The name of the new heir was written at the end under the date. In this way a difference
was made between the masters before and after Linji.
Rujing, my late master, abbot of Mount Tiantong, strictly prohibited students from unjustifiably claiming to have received dharma heritage. His assembly was an ancient buddha’s assembly, restoring the monastic tradition. He himself did not wear a brocade robe. Although he had received the brocade robe of Zen Master Daokai of Mount Furong, he did not use it during formal or informal lectures. In fact, he never wore a brocade robe in his entire lifetime as an abbot. Those who were knowledgeable, as well as those who were not, admired him and respected him as a true master.
In his lectures, Rujing often admonished all practitioners of the way:
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 28
